During a time of flux for U.S. healthcare, employers and purchasers are increasingly concerned about how much value they receive for their enormous investment in healthcare. In a recent presentation at the World Health Congress Innovative Drivers of Value Based Purchasing Seminar, Leah Binder, president and CEO of the employer-driven nonprofit The Leapfrog Group (Leapfrog), unveiled a new tool that allows purchasers to calculate how much they spend annually on unnecessary costs due to medical errors that occur within general acute care hospitals.

Nominations are now being accepted for the Sixth Annual MITSS HOPE Award. This prestigious award is being sponsored by RL Solutions, and the winner will receive a cash prize of $5,000 to continue their important work.

A new study evaluating surgical outcomes at California hospitals enrolled in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP^®) found surgical patients at ACS NSQIP hospitals had significantly reduced mortality rates compared with non-ACS NSQIP hospitals. These findings were presented Sunday, July 14, 2013 at the ACS NSQIP National Conference in San Diego, Calif.

Clinical alarms designed to alert nurses to changes in their patients’ conditions have become a continual barrage of noise that poses a significant threat to patient safety, according to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). A new AACN Practice Alert outlines evidence-based protocols to reduce false or non-actionable alarms and improve the effective use of these monitoring aids.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has announced an agreement with the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to form a partnership to fund a major intervention study aimed at preventing injuries from falls in older adults.

By Libby Hoy and Mia Arias

Imagine a setting where patients and families feel confident and comfortable asking questions, providing valuable historical information, and discussing their health priorities in open dialogue with their providers. How many adverse medical events could be avoided? How many duplicated tests could be eliminated?

LiveData, Inc. has announced that the company’s OR-Dashboard has been installed into a new integrated OR system at the Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare Facility in Miami, providing the cornerstone for advances in both workflow efficiency and patient safety. KARL STORZ Endoscopy-America, Inc., led the technology installation, which includes the KARL STORZ OR1® integration platform, and LiveData OR-Dashboard with Active Time Out.

Ochsner Medical Center –Baton Rouge recently expanded its use of capnography to monitor patients using pain medication through patient controlled analgesia (PCA) to strengthen patient safety measures. Capnography evaluates how effectively patients are breathing by measuring exhaled carbon dioxide, alerting medical caregivers when life-threatening respiratory depression occurs.